How to play Swatchle

Five clues a day. Each one describes a color you already know, without ever naming it. Find that color on the board, and the closer you land, the more stars you get.

A round, step by step

1. Read the clue. It points to something real, like a brand's logo, a team's jersey, or a country's flag.
2. Find your color. On a phone, tap the board to zoom in, then tap the swatch you think fits. Pinch to zoom back out. On a computer, click a swatch, or move around with the arrow keys.
3. Lock it in. You get one guess per round, with no take-backs.
4. See how close you were. The game shows your stars, the answer, and where the answer sat on the board. Then it's on to the next round.

After round 5 you get your total out of 15 and a grid you can share.

How stars work

Every answer is one swatch on the board. Picture square rings of swatches around it, like ripples. The exact swatch scores a 3. Each ring of swatches around it scores one less.

• 3You picked the exact swatch.
• 2One ring off: any of the eight swatches touching the answer.
• 1Two rings off: any swatch in the next ring out.
• Anything farther away.

Two things worth knowing about the board

• The colors wrap around. The far-left and far-right color columns are neighbors, the way pink meets red on a color wheel. A pick on one edge can still be close to an answer on the other.
• Gray is its own zone. The row of grays under the colors is scored separately. A gray pick only scores when the answer is a gray, and a color pick only scores when the answer is a color. The grays don't wrap around.

One puzzle a day

Everyone gets the same five rounds each day, and a new puzzle arrives at midnight where you are. Your progress is saved on your device, so you can leave partway through and pick up where you stopped. Once you finish a day, you can look back at it, but you can't replay it.

Sharing your score

The Share button copies your grid, or opens your phone's share menu. A day with 8 stars looks like this:

Each line is a round: its number, then a star for each star you scored, or an X for a miss. In the game the stars are gold, silver, and bronze. In a message they arrive as emoji, like 1️⃣ ⭐⭐🌟 for a perfect round, 2️⃣ ⭐ for one star, and 3️⃣ ✖️ for a miss. The grid never shows the answers, so sharing it can't spoil the day for anyone else.

Questions people ask

What is Swatchle?

Swatchle is a free daily color-guessing game. Each day has five clues, and each clue describes the color of something real, like a logo, a flag, or a jersey, without naming the color. You pick the swatch you think matches on a board of 110 colors, and the closer you get, the more stars you score: up to 3 a round and 15 a day.

Is there a Wordle for colors?

There are a few, and Swatchle is one of them. Like Wordle, it's one puzzle a day, the same for everyone, with a grid of stars you can share without spoiling it. Instead of letters, you're guessing colors. Our color games page compares Swatchle with the others.

Is Swatchle free?

Yes. It plays in your browser on a phone or a computer, with nothing to install. Ads are coming to help pay for it.

Do I need an account?

No. There are no accounts. Your progress is saved in your browser on your own device, so if you switch browsers or clear your browser's data, the game won't remember your day.

When does a new puzzle come out?

At midnight where you are. Everyone plays the same five rounds on the same day.

Can I play past puzzles?

Not yet. There's no archive of past days, so each puzzle is only playable on its day. Once you finish a day, you can look back at your results until the next puzzle arrives.

Where do the answers come from?

Every answer is the real color of a real thing. When there's a published color, like a brand's guidelines or a flag's official spec, that's the starting point. Then each answer is checked by eye against the logo, official artwork, or everyday photos, because you'll be guessing from memory of how the thing looks.

Can I see how other people did?

Yes. Once enough people have played a day, the end screen shows how everyone scored in each round. It shows how many players scored each number of stars, never which swatches they picked.

Does the board change?

Not from day to day. Every puzzle uses the same 110 swatches, on every screen, so the more you play, the better you'll know your way around it.

How is Swatchle different from other color games?

Most color games show you a color and ask you to recreate it, with sliders, a hex code, or a mix of paints. Swatchle never shows you the color. It asks you to remember it: you read about something you've seen a thousand times, then find its color on the board.

Wordle is a trademark of The New York Times Company. Swatchle isn't affiliated with or endorsed by it.